Tuesday, October 1, 2019

What To Look For: 2019 Shriners Childrens Hospital Open

The Tour comes back to Las Vegas for the Shriners Childrens Hospital Open.


TPC Summerlin was designed by Bobby Weed in 1991.  It plays to 7,255 yards at a par-72 with a course rating 74.4 and a slope of 137.

The course is fairly well received by the players as Weed is a solid course architect who also designed TPC River Highlands and TPC Tampa Bay.  I've never been to TPC River Highlands, but the course is very well liked on Tour.  TPC Tampa Bay gets more criticism, but I really enjoy the course and I think the shaky conditioning with the expensive rates tend to turn people off to it.

Summerlin is one of the toughest, if not the toughest, course on Tour on shots around the green.  It's a high GIR % course where players need to make birdies.  Most of the strokes gained/lost will be from 150-175 yards.

The last critical hole is the 444 yard par-4 18th hole.


The tee shot and the putting are what lead to the deviation in scores being so high on #18. 

The pros will hit the fairway about 78% of the time, but the misses are either in the waste area on the left, the fairway bunkers or even the water (about 3% of tee shots find the water).  They'll hit their average approach shot to 27-feet, but this is the 6th most difficult green to putt on.

Based on the data having the average drive here at 296 yards, most pros will want to have a target just left of the fairway bunkers on the right.  The longer hitters can have a target more left of those bunkers and the shorter hitters will have a target more directly at the bunkers.


Projected Winning Score: -20


3JACK'S FAVORITES

Patrick Cantlay +1,000
Bryson DeChambeau +1,600
Adam Scott +1,800
Tony Finau +2,200
Hideki Matsuyama +2,500
Collin Morikawa +2,500


3JACK'S DARK HORSE PICKS

Adam Hadwin +4,000
Jason Kokrak +4,000
Matthew Wolff +5,000
Jhonattan Vegas +10,000





3JACK